EA James Pond has posted the news you've all been waiting for - the Wing Commander Arena manual, Star*Soldier, has been released as a free PDF download! The manual is a 64-page long full color production that's brimming with Arena information and general Wing Commander continuity - we're going to be digging through this one for quite a while, folks... You can download it from EA here (7.7 mb PDF). In addition to being an amazing production in its own right, this is a great indication of the fact that Arena's release is just around the corner...

John Cordell was kind enough to forward us a pencil sketch done by Jacek for the Privateer Gemini Gold remake project. Jacek says: "Few days ago I made Eden concept art. It looks something different to original art. I used some Aztec style." You can compare it to the original below - it looks pretty nice! The location pictured is actually Gaea, the top secret Retro headquarters planet hidden in the mysterious Eden System... somewhere in the Gemini Sector.

If you thought Kilrathi Saga was hard to find, you aint seen nothing yet! Kurt has sent us a picture that he describes as "the happy end of a search which went about 10 years into the past of my life." What's he holding? Wing Commander 2 for the FM Towns - one of the hardest to find Wing Commander games ever. WC2 FM Towns was released only in Japan... and even there it seems to exist in more limited numbers than other FM Towns titles like Wing Commander I or Wing Commander Armada. Congratulations on your find - you're very lucky!

Recent Updates

Banshee Kicks Off Flat Universe's Border Worlds Faction

The first Border Worlds ship for Wing Commander Flat Universe has been announced! The Banshee now joins the battle alongside four Confed and four Kilrathi craft. It's designed to be particularly effective against slower bombers such as the Broadsword or Grikath. (2018-02-21)

New 3D Prints Highlight Gemini Sector Hotness

Sonnich Johannesen has shown off some large scale and beautifully detailed 3D prints from Wing Commander Privateer. The Centurion and (not pictured) Galaxy are from Astrofossil and the Tarsus model was designed by DJFX, who posted some gorgeous pics of his own a while back. The size of each of these is impressive, and Sonnich has posted some neat pictures of these ships coming together on the printer. (2018-02-20)

Paper Cruiser Returns Stronger & Better Armed

Adm_Maverick's Tallahassee papercraft cruiser is back again in a whole new way. This second major iteration improves on the first in a number of ways, including how the main hull fits together. It also has interior components that form the bow-mounted capship missile launcher. (2018-02-19)

Live Wing Commander Jazz Recording A Huge Success!

Origin composer George Oldziey has completed his live recording of Wing Commander jazz music. The event was conducted last week at George's studio in Austin, and pictures from the day make it look like they had a lot of fun! Initial results also sound fantastic, and we're anxious to hear how everything comes together in the finished album. (2018-02-18)

RPS Highlights Origin Fandom

Rock Paper Shotgun has run a neat article on longtime Origin collector Joe Garrity. There's a really interesting Q&A that delves into how Joe got started many years ago buying up spare copies of Ultima games and meeting with their creators. It also highlights some of the good work that fans have done to preserve historic material, such as our 2008 trip to archive Origin source documents at Mythic or the assistance Wingnuts gave Raylight to develop Prophecy for the Game Boy Advance. (2018-02-17)